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HesiodHesiod, Works and Days, 463. directs his husbandman, before he either plough or sow, to pray to the infernal Jove and the venerable Ceres, but with his hand upon the plough-tail. Homer acquaints us how Ajax, being to engage in a single combat with Hector, bade the Grecians pray to the Gods for him; and while they were at their devotions, he was putting on his armor. Likewise, after Agamemnon had thus prepared his soldiers for the fight,— Each make his spear to glitter as the sun, Each see his warlike target well hung on,— he then prayed,— Grant me, great Jove, to throw down Priam’s roof. See Il. VII. 193; II. 382, 414.
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For God is the brave man’s hope, and not the coward’s excuse. The Jews indeed once sat on their tails,—it being forsooth their Sabbath day,—and suffered their enemies to rear their scaling-ladders and make themselves masters of their walls, and so lay still until they were caught like so many trout in the drag-net of their own superstition.See Maccabees, I. 2, 27–38, cited by Wyttenbach. (G.)
